Bikers to dominate Market Street hearing

Hearing to focus on bicycle lanes in city's plan for a better boulevard

The city’s effort to redesign Market Street is ongoing, but this 2013 image of a new Muni boarding platform shows a diversity of transportation methods — but no automobiles and, even though the setting is the Financial District, nobody is wearing a jacket or tie. less

The city’s effort to redesign Market Street is ongoing, but this 2013 image of a new Muni boarding platform shows a diversity of transportation methods — but no automobiles and, even though the setting is ... more

Photo: - / SF Department Of Public Works

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Another image from the Better Market Street planning effort, this one of United Nations Plaza. And with a Richard Serra sculpture in the back, to boot.

Another image from the Better Market Street planning effort, this one of United Nations Plaza. And with a Richard Serra sculpture in the back, to boot.

Photo: - / SF Department Of Public Works

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A draft rendering of United Nations Plaza, part of a proposal aimed at improving flow of traffic, bikes and pedestrians on Market Street.

A draft rendering of United Nations Plaza, part of a proposal aimed at improving flow of traffic, bikes and pedestrians on Market Street.

Photo: -, SF Department Of Public Works

Bikers to dominate Market Street hearing

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A long-planned face-lift for Market Street is fast becoming a question of how best to accommodate San Francisco's growing number of cyclists.

A Monday morning hearing on the city's Better Market Street plan is expected to cover all aspects of the $350 million project, but it's clear that bicycles will dominate the conversation.

The hearing, requested by Supervisors Scott Wiener and David Chiu, calls for an update on the entire effort, but stresses the need for a discussion of a recent proposal to move bicycles off Market Street and into a separated bike lane on Mission Street.

"Given that bicycling is an important element of the city's commitment to a revitalized Market Street ... (city officials) are requested to discuss how diverting bicycles to Mission Street is in the best interest of the city," the hearing notice says.

The Mission Street plan, one of three transit alternatives for the Market Street revamp, has cyclists upset over the possibility that their use of the city's commercial hub could be curtailed.

"I and other supervisors have concerns," Wiener said. "Mission Street is already narrow. If you put in full bike lanes, it would probably increase congestion and force removal of a lot of parking."

Ironically, city planners, transportation experts and others came up with the Mission Street alternative this year as a way to make cycling an easier and safer way to get downtown.

By moving the Mission Street buses to Market Street and putting in bikeways that separate cyclists from traffic, transportation could be improved, even for inexperienced riders.

Problems for cyclists

"With the buses gone, we could time the traffic lights for cyclists, as we have on Valencia Street," said Mindy Linetzky of the city's Department of Public Works, lead agency for the Market Street improvements. "It's a flat street and would be usable by cyclists from 8 to 80."

While bicycles would not be banned from Market Street under any of the three alternatives, the busy boulevard provides some special problems for bike lanes, Linetzky admitted.

To the dismay of cyclists, traffic engineers believe it would be difficult to install a separated bicycle lane between Fifth Street and Grant Avenue, forcing riders to continue sharing that short section of Market Street with cars and buses.

"We can't move the cable car turntable or the BART entrances," Linetzky said. "It's the busiest part of Market Street and we need a place for all those people to walk."

5,000 bikers a day

About 5,000 cyclists a day use Market Street, making it one of the busiest urban bikeways in the country. Bicycle advocates don't see a need to tamper with what's become a growing success.

"There's not a more important street as far as sustainable transit in the city is concerned," said Leah Shahum, executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. "It's a Better Market Street plan and the energy should go toward Market Street."

History of delays

The coalition, an increasingly vocal political bloc in the city, is urging its members to turn out for Monday's hearing. They are expected to be joined by a variety of other transit and pedestrian safety advocates.

That hearing also is likely to focus on the project's history of delays. Work on Market Street, which will include a total re-engineering and repaving of the street from Octavia Street to the Embarcadero, along with improvements to the street's signature public spaces - U.N., Hallidie and Embarcadero plazas - is not expected to start until 2017, about four years behind the original schedule.

"We've had a couple of tense hearings on the Market Street project," Wiener said. "It's taking longer than any of us would like."

Plans now call for a pair of community workshops on the project in July, followed by a lengthy environmental review process. Linetzky stressed that the city won't designate a preferred project alternative until after the environmental review is completed.

Wiener is hopeful that the delays, disputes and other concerns can be resolved so that San Francisco can move ahead with the much-needed revitalization and reimaging of the city's best-known thoroughfare.

"My sense is that things are moving in a more positive direction," the supervisor said. "I'm willing to listen to what everyone has to say."

Market Street hearing

The hearing on the status of the Better Market Street project will be at 9 a.m. Monday in Room 262 of San Francisco City Hall, in front of the supervisors' Land Use and Economic Development Committee.